Thoughts From a Frazzled Mind

The Olsen Family Christmas party is always tons of fun.  The Woodlands were in charge this year and it was a craft party.  They had several fun Christmas crafts like painting and assembling snowman ornaments, rock nativity sets, and Christmas eye-spy bottles.  For the little ones there was coloring pages and pipe cleaner activities. The California Olsens were able to attend for the first time in many years.  A great time was had by all.  Since all of the brothers and sisters were here, we got some great family pictures.  The first one is a common sight in the Olsen home - Kim and Douglas comparing their "pregnant" bellies.  We all agreed that they are both measuring about eight months!  Each year we thrilled that Joan is able to make it to the party, she surprises us all with her endurance! My dad never truly recovered from his pneumonia months ago.  He was pretty much bound to a wheelchair because he didn't have t...

Serious lack of photos this week!  I'm really slacking! It is December!  Wow!  That came fast!  Christmas will be here before we know it.  Tasha and Zane will be here, I can't wait to see them, it has been too long. This week was pretty uneventful.  Work was good - my boss, Sally asked me if I would teach the Maternal/Newborn/Pediatric class in Murray next semester.  Of course I jumped at the chance.  Maternal/Newborn is my passion and I can't wait to teach it!  Of course I am not thrilled to have to drive to Murray each Monday, but Sally offered to let me stay at her house each Sunday evening (which is only minutes away from the campus) so that I won't have to get up early and fight the traffic.  I think that I may just take her up on that!  Now to start working on lesson plans! Friday night was the anniversary of Tyson Wilding's passing therefore it was "Chocolate Dessert Day".  I made the dessert and Kim and I took it ...

Our annual Olsen Family party was a blast - as always!  The Olsen clan really knows how to bring out the big guns when it comes to fun!  Barb's family was in charge this year and we held the party at the Mantua Church.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here is what I have. Kim appears to be raring to go with his "Let's Party" shirt!  I'm not sure why I took this picture of him looking grumpy because he wasn't! Ryan, Mickel, Jan Abby, Alyssa, Zach Alec's friend, Lexi.  Cute girl! Alicia, David David, Mickel, Craig, Kristiann We played several fun games including Bingo with great prizes.  Kim was the big winner, but that could have been because he was using 3 Bingo cards while the rest of us were only using 1.  Luckily, he was generous and shared all of his prizes. We had a baked potato bar - always a favorite!  We were excited that Craig, Dave, and Joan all felt good enough to attend and that part of the "Ca...

We had a great time at our annual Olsen family Christmas party!  Kim and I were in charge this year, and we chose to use "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" as the theme.  We decorated by hanging tons of lights all over the gym and placed ornaments painted with Grinch faces down the centers of the tables. We played some really fun games:  for the kids we had Pin the Heart on the Grinch and we had a coloring and craft table where some fine artwork was created. For the adults we Team Wrapped Presents, Placed Marshmallows in Boxes using only Chopsticks, Drew Profiles of our Neighbors , and played If and Then . Wrapping presents as a team. Drawing Our Neighbor Comparing Jared's butt to the one in the drawing Chopsticks and Marshmallow We asked everyone to come dressed as their favorite Whoville character, and we were pleased to see the creativity in all of the costumes! Our funny bones were tickled until our...

Whew! What a crazy week! It was filled with ups and downs, tons of work and tons of fun! In between all of the craziness, we started turning a bedroom into an office. But the best part of the week by far was the PARTIES!!!! Friday night Mont & Marilyn joined Kim, Bubba and I for a great dinner at Moore's Cowpoke BBQ. We had a yummy feast of baby back ribs, halibut, pulled pork and all of the fixin's. After we stuffed ourselves silly, we went to Roxane's house for a crazy night of games. Kevin and Julie met us there along with their adorable kids. We played a few hands of cards, then reverted to kids again and played "Sneaks" (a safer version of spoons). If that wasn't crazy enough, we then turned to "Rock Band". I'm pretty sure that there is nothing in the world more silly than watching mature? adults playing drums, guitar, and singing to old '80's songs. It was a riot! Saturday we had the annual Olsen Family Easter Party complete w...